18 Months in the Land of the Rising Sun: Helping Hands and a Baptism!!!

So this week was a little crazy. It started out pretty normal, but then got a little crazy. We were out housing on Tuesday night and it started POURING rain. I have never seen it rain so hard in my entire life. And then there was lots of lightning and thunder. It was close too. So we rode home in the crazy rain and we were just drenched. We were watching the storm at our apartment. Our power was bumping a little, but we didn't think it was a huge deal. All night though there was thunder and lightning. And then sirens. Lots of sirens. I couldn't really sleep. We got an email from Nishiyama Kaicho at like 4:30 AM. He was talking about the storm and stuff. Then at like 6:20 we got a call from Otani Choro. He wanted to make sure we were ok and that our power and water were working. We told him yes. Then he told us that there was flooding and stuff. Later we got another email from Nishiyama Kaicho. There were fires and landslides and flooding and stuff. We had no idea that it was so bad. We got a call from Okanoue Shimai too. She wanted to make sure we were ok. Our apartment and everything around it was fine. It just looked like it had rained a lot.

Anyways, we heard that lots of people were killed and that it was really bad. We ended going up there to Midorii to do Helping Hands. We went on Thursday and Saturday. It was SO sad! You can't see the roads. There were cars that were almost completely buried in mud. There was probably 4 feet of mud everywhere. Roads had been wiped out and were just rivers. The mud completely wiped houses away. It was so sad. But people were in pretty good spirits. These people are amazing. They were just grateful for what they had. They were happy their families were ok and that, even though their house was surrounded by mud, their house was still there. I am so impressed by how well they responded. Amazing. But it was so good that we got to go help. We were digging houses and cars out of the mud and filling bags with it. Then we hauled the bags to sandbag so it wouldn't all flood again. It's still been raining a little bit, but not near as bad, so that is definitely a blessing.

But in happier news, Ling got baptized on Saturday!!! We spent the whole morning shoveling mud, then we went home and got ready, and went to Ling's baptism. It was SO good. She asked Kuchar Shimai and I to talk at it, so that was super scary, but it was also cool that she asked us. It was at the church in Hikari. The Hikari elders were there too. Apparently someone told the branch the missionaries were going to do a special number. But we didn't know! So we just grabbed all the missionaries, including the Hikari elders, and sang a hymn. It wasn't so great, but it's ok! It all really went so well! She is amazing! SO amazing! She was a little nervous to get baptized, but afterwards she was so happy! She said she just had felt such a good feeling. Then she even bore her testimony! It was so cool. She even ended her testimony "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." One of the ZL's (zone leaders) said that was the first time his whole mission he had heard a Recent Convert end their testimony like that right after their baptism. It's because she is Golden! She said that people could call her Ling Shimai now too. It was so cute! Then her confirmation on Sunday was great too. She is the best ever! She is going to do so great!

So that was this week. Sorry I didn't write more. I don't have a lot of time, but everything is going super great! I love this work! Please keep the people that were affected by the big storm in your prayers!!!

Love you all!

Babcock Shimai